The Leakey Foundation

In December, The Leakey Foundation was proud to host Dr. Robert D. Martin, Curator of Biological Anthropology at The Field Museum and Dr. Ian Tattersall, Curator at The American Museum of Natural History, in a rousting debate over the origins of the mysterious Homo floresiensis. In case you missed it, here is footage of the debate.

The debate, held at California Academy of Sciences, was captured by Fora.tv.

Dr. Richard Wrangham, Professor at Harvard University and co-director of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project

Ever since Darwin and The Descent of Man, the existence of humans has been attributed to our intelligence and adaptability. Renowned primatologist Richard Wrangham presents a startling alternative: our evolutionary success is the result of cooking. In a groundbreaking theory of our origins, Dr. Wrangham will show that the shift from raw to cooked foods was the key factor in human evolution.

When our ancestors adapted to using fire, humanity began.

Once our hominid ancestors began cooking their food, the human digestive tract shrank and the brain grew. Time once spent chewing tough raw food could be used instead to hunt and to tend camp. Cooking became the basis for pair bonding and marriage, created the household, and even led to a sexual division of labor.

Tracing the contemporary implications of our ancestors’ diets, Dr. Wrangham sheds new light on how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today. A pathbreaking new theory of human evolution, Dr. Wrangham will fascinate anyone interested in our ancient origins or in our modern eating habits.

Dr. Richard Wrangham is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University. He is co-director of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project, the long-term study of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda. His research culminates in the study of human evolution in which he draws conclusions based on the behavioral ecology of apes. As a graduate student, Dr. Wrangham studied under Robert Hinde and Jane Goodall. He also helped the late Dian Fossey establish her eponymous Gorilla Fund to protect and research the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012 @ 6:30pm

Houston Museum of Natural Science

General Admission: $18

HMNS, Leakey Foundation & Harvard Club Members: $12

Please call the Museum Box Office at (713) 639-4629 or reserve your ticket online.

There will be a book signing immediately after the lecture. Reserve your copy of Catching Fire by Dr. Richard Wrangham now.

If you are on Facebook, let us know you are coming on the Facebook event page for this lecture.

Generous support provided by Wells Fargo Bank.

A Homo floresiensis skull (left) compared to a Homo sapien skull on the right. Photo courtesy of Peter Brown

In the history of exploring human origins, there has never been a more baffling discovery than the extraordinary Homo floresiensis, now known as world-famous as the “Hobbit”. Found on an obscure Indonesian island in 2004, this tiny, small-brained, big-footed hominin is unlike any other discovery.

But who was this 14,000 year old being, and who were its ancestors? These questions fuel a huge debate among paleoanthropologists. Is the fairly complete LB1 skeleton simply a modern human wracked with genetic disease. Maybe it belongs to a “dwarfed” island species descended from the renowned Homo erectus of nearby Java? Or was this individual a remote descendant of the very first hominin ancestors to exit Africa?

Depending on the answer, this little person may make a crucial contribution to our knowledge of the early evolution of modern humans. In this light-hearted debate, two eminent biological anthropologists, Dr. Robert Martin of Chicago’s Field Museum, and Dr. Ian Tattersall of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, will present contrasting viewpoints on this amazing find, and attempt to lift a corner of the veil that still obscures one of paleoanthropology’s most intriguing mysteries.

Who Was the Hobbit?

A Debate with Dr. Robert D. Martin, Curator of Biological Anthropology at The Field Museum and Dr. Ian Tattersall, Curator at The American Museum of Natural History

Featuring Guest Moderator:
Roy Eisenhardt,
Former President of the California Academy of Sciences

Tuesday, December 6, 2011 @ 7pm
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA

Let us know you are coming on our Facebook page!

Generous support provided by Wells Fargo Bank.

Dr. Robert D. Martin, Curator of Biological Anthropology at The Field Museum	Dr. Ian Tattersall, Curator at The American Museum of Natural History

Dr. Nina Jablonski, Professor and Head of Anthropology at Penn State

We expose it, cover it, paint it, tattoo it, scar it and pierce it. Skin mediates the most important transactions of our lives, while protecting us, advertising our health, our identity and our individuality. Join Dr. Nina Jablonski, Professor and Head of Anthropology at Penn State, as she explores the unique biological and cultural aspects of human skin and its importance as a key element of human adaptation.

Let us know you are coming on our Facebook page!

Saturday October 1, 2011 @ 1 pm
The Field Museum, Chicago, IL

Free with basic admission; please call (312) 665-7400 to reserve your seat.

Generous support provided by The Segal Family Foundation and Wells Fargo Bank.

Is Man a Wolf to Man? – Morality and the Social Behavior of our Fellow Primates

Frans de Waal, C. H. Candler Professor of Primate Behavior at Emory University and Director,Living Links Center

Homo homini lupus – “man is wolf to man” – is an old Roman proverb popularized by Thomas Hobbes. Even though it permeates large parts of law, economics, and political science, the proverb fails to do justice to our species’ thoroughly social nature as well as to canids, which are among the most gregarious and cooperative animals. For the past quarter century, this cynical view has also been promoted by an influential school of biology, followers of Thomas Henry Huxley, which holds that we are born nasty as a result of “selfish” genes. Accordingly, it is only with the greatest possible effort that we can hope to become moral beings. Charles Darwin, however, saw things differently: he believed in continuity between animal social instincts and human morality. He wrote an entire book about The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Modern psychology and neuroscience support Darwin’s view about the moral emotions. Human moral decisions often stem from “gut” reactions, some of which we share with other animals. de Waal will elaborate on the connection between morality and primate behavior. Other primates show signs of empathy, prosocial tendencies, reciprocity, and a sense of fairness that promote a mutually satisfactory modus vivendi. de Waal will review evidence for continuity to support the view that the building blocks of morality are older than humanity.

Dr. Frans B. M. de Waal is a Dutch/American behavioral biologist known for his work on the social intelligence of primates. His first book, Chimpanzee Politics (1982) compared the schmoozing and scheming of chimpanzees involved in power struggles with that of human politicians. Ever since, de Waal has drawn parallels between primate and human behavior, from peacemaking and morality to culture. His latest book is The Age of Empathy (2009). De Waal is C. H. Candler Professor in the Psychology Department of Emory University and Director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Center, in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a member of the (US) National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. In 2007, Time selected him as one of the Worlds’ 100 Most Influential People Today.

Thursday, May 5, 2011 @ 7:00 pm
Saturday, May 7, 2011 @ 1:00pm
Please note date change
American Museum on Natural History | New York, NY
Free with museum admission.
Information: 415.561.4646

First Out of Africa

David Lordkipanidze, General Director at the Georgian National Museum

Saturday, April 9, 2011 @ 1:00 pm
The Field Museum | Chicago, IL
Free with museum admission.
Information: 415.561.4646

Some of the most controversial issues remaining in paleoanthropology are when and why our ancestors left their motherland and began global colonization. The site of Dmanisi, Georgia has produced surprising evidence for the early dispersal of hominids out of Africa. Dmanisi dates to approximately 1.77 million years ago and has revealed a wealth of cranial and post-cranial hominid fossil material along with many well-preserved animal bones and quantities of stone artifacts. The Dmanisi hominids have a surprising mosaic of primitive morphology such as small body and brain sizes and an absence of humeral torsion coupled with derived human-like body proportions and lower limb morphology. These fossils bring into question whether Homo erectus was the first hominid out of Africa. The Dmanisi hominid remains are the first discovered outside of Africa to show clear affinities to early Homo, they represent the missing link between Africa, Asia and Europe.

David Lordkipanidze, Ph.D. is the first General Director of the newly founded National Museum of Georgia which unifies 10 major museums of the country and 2 research institutes. Under his leadership the Museum is gradually transforming from a Soviet-type institution into a vibrant space for culture, education and science. Lordkipanidze’s professional activities are connected with Dmanisi, the world famous archaeological site. Lordkipanidze has authored over 100 scientific articles published in widely respected and well-known scientific journals such as Nature, Science Magazine, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of USA, Journal of Human Evolution and more. He is regularly featured in the popular scientific magazines such as National Geographic magazine, GEO magazine, Scientific American. In 2004 Lordkipanidze received the Rolex Award for Enterprise. He was also given the National Decoration of Georgia (2001), Award of the Prince of Monaco (2001), the French decorations Palmes Académiques (2002) and L`Ordre du Mérite (2006), a Fulbright Scholarship (2002), and the Georgian National Prize for Science and Technology (2004). Since 2007 David Lordkipanidze is a foreign associate member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), corresponding member of German archaeological institute(2008), corresponding member of Georgian National Academy of Sciences (2009), Member of European academy of Science and Arts (2009).

Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project

Spencer Wells, Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and Frank H. T. Rhodes Class of ‘56 Professor at Cornell University

Genetics has revolutionized our understanding of human diversity. It is now widely accepted that our species originated in Africa within the past 200,000 years, and that we started to populate the world outside of Africa only in the past 60,000. Using data from hundreds of thousands of people, including members of the general public, the Genographic Project is deciphering the migratory routes followed by early humans as they populated Earth. New results from the project will be presented and discussed.

Spencer Wells, Ph.D. is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and Frank H. T. Rhodes Class of ‘56 Professor at Cornell University. He leads the Genographic Project, which is collecting and analyzing hundreds of thousands of DNA samples from people around the world in order to decipher how our ancestors populated the planet. Wells received his Ph.D. in population genetics from Harvard University and conducted postdoctoral work at Stanford and Oxford. He has written three books, The Journey of Man, Deep Ancestry and Pandora’s Seed, and has appeared in numerous documentary films. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, a filmmaker.

Made possible, in partnership with the Houston Museum of Natural Science, by the generous support of our sponsors— Wells Fargo Bank, The Brown Foundation and Wallace S. Wilson.

Monday, March 7, 2011 @ 6:30 pm
Houston Museum of Natural Science | Houston, TX
Tickets: Adults $17, Students $12, Leakey Foundation & HMNS members $12.
Information and tickets: 713.639.4629

Neandertals Deciphered

Jean-Jacques Hublin, Director, Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute

Neanderthals were the first fossil hominins discovered and, since then, have been the most studied. However, it is only in the last two decades that entirely new techniques have made new and fascinating insights into their biology and behavior possible. Beyond their odd anatomy, we are now able to explore the mechanisms of their birth and growth, the way their brains developed, and the chemical signals left in their bones from their diet. The decoding of their genome has opened a new era in Paleoanthropology. Ultimately, understanding the rise and the fall of the Neanderthals will help us to elucidate the unrivaled evolutionary success of our own species.

Jean-Jacques Hublin, Ph.D., is a Professor and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany), where he created the Department of Human Evolution in 2004. Initially his research focused on the origin and evolution of Neanderthals and he has proposed an accretion model for the emergence of the Neanderthal lineage that roots it in time in the middle of the Middle Pleistocene. He has also worked on the processes associated with the emergence of Homo sapiens in North Africa and on the interactions between Neanderthals and modern humans in Europe. He developed the use of medical and virtual imaging in the reconstruction and study of fossil hominids, paying particular attention to growth and development issues. He has led field operations in North Africa, Spain, and France. In addition to his scientific papers, he regularly publishes popular books and articles on the subjects of Neanderthal and early modern human evolution.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011 @ 7 pm
The Hearst Forum at the California Academy of Sciences | San Francisco, CA
Tickets: Adults $12, Seniors $10, Leakey Foundation & Academy members $10.
Reserve a space online or call 800.794.7576.

Gombe 50 – Celebrating Conservation in Science

Anne Pusey, Former Director, Jane Goodall Institute’s Center for Primate Studies

2010 marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. Louis Leakey sending Jane Goodall to Gombe Stream, in Tanzania, to begin her groundbreaking study of chimpanzees in the wild. The chimpanzee behavioral research she pioneered there has produced a wealth of scientific discovery. This significant and vital part of scientific history will be celebrated by The Leakey Foundation, in partnership with the California Academy of Sciences. Anne Pusey, former Director of Jane Goodall Institute’s Center for Primate Studies, will discuss this important project, which spans 50 years and is still running today.

Dr. Pusey will review how the Gombe study has revealed the basic structure of chimpanzee society, the nature of social relationships within and between the sexes, life history patterns, and how these resemble and differ from those of humans. Despite 50 years of study, chimpanzees are slow to give up their secrets and continue to surprise us. Pusey will discuss how long-term data, coupled with new technologies, have facilitated investigations of previously intractable questions and how new observations of unexpected behavior continually generate new questions. The evening will be illustrated with rarely seen archival photographs, video and recent stories of the Gombe chimpanzees.

Learn more about Gombe on our Gombe 50 page.

Friday, October 15 @ 7:00 pm
Tickets: Adults $12 / Seniors $10 / Leakey Foundation & Cal Academy Members $10
Purchase tickets online or call 800-794-7576

Tracing the Origins of Speech

Jeffrey T. Laitman, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

The ability for speech is one of the most distinguishing characteristics of our species. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a world without speech. Yet this quintessential human trait was probably not present as we know it in our early ancestors.

When, then, did early hominids cross some threshold leaving behind the limitations of ape-like grunts and growls for the variety of sounds in human speech?

This is a question that has long intrigued, and yet puzzled, scholars from enlightenment philosophes to modern paleoneurologists (those who study fossil brains.) Approaches that examine the evolution of the vocal tract of our ancestors are providing clues to solving this mystery. With new evidence from both the fossil human record, and advances in understanding vocal tract anatomy, function and neural development, we are gaining insight into the speech capabilities of our ancestors –from the earliest australopiths to close relatives such as Neanderthals –and reconstructing how changes occurred.

Saturday, October 9 @ 1:00 pm
The Field Museum | Chicago, IL
Free with museum admission.

Generous support provided by The Segal Family Foundation.